"There's still a long way to go and not everything depends on me. I would not be in perfect physical shape to race in F1," he added.

He admits, however, that he is now a regular in Mercedes' F1 simulator at Brackley, while the German team has admitted he is assisting with car development.

But Kubica said: "In reality, I couldn't drive on all the circuits. Monte Carlo for example, you have to turn the steering wheel more and I couldn't do that.

"For sure I could drive the car, I feel as though I'm driving as before on the simulator, but it's pointless to do a (track) test if I can't go on all the circuits."

He is also quoted by Autosprint: "In terms of physical effort, of course the simulator is not able to reproduce the G-force, but the effort behind the wheel and the controls are identical to the real cars.

"Even now I'm using it without any help, but in all honestly I think I would be able to drive only on about 80 per cent of the circuits."

Kubica repeated his denial that an actual return to a F1 test track is already scheduled.

"Because," he smiled, "you could not keep that secret from everybody.

"No, really, without the prospect of racing, a test doesn't interest me," he added.